Time for Fiscal Responsibility

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GRAVES of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, early reports indicate that President Obama will call for a new spending package during his State of the Union address tonight. Now, I have heard, as many of you have, that this might be masked, as he might say tonight, as targeted investments. More stimulus. Democrats speak for stimulus, but it will be hidden with calls for tepid spending cuts.

Well, Mr. Speaker, Americans know that our debt is $14 trillion. They know that the President spent $1.3 trillion over the budget last year, only to see unemployment stay above 9 percent. Now is the time to pivot to fiscal responsibility. It's time to shred the President's maxed-out credit cards and cut his weekly allowance. It's time to tell our kids and grandkids that we don't want them to bear the burden of our generation's fiscal irresponsibility.

Mr. Speaker, I, along with my constituents in north Georgia, hope that the early reports are wrong about another stimulus being proposed tonight. Rather than use a few spending cuts as window dressing for more spending, tonight is the President's opportunity to seize the moment, to be a leader, and get serious about spending reform.

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